Qaradawi slams Pope’s visit to Jordan

Gaza – Arab governments which welcome Pope Benedict XVI harm the Prophet Mohammed more than the pontiff’s controversial statements against the founder of Islam, an outspoken Hamas lawmaker said Monday. “Saying something about Mohammed will not harm him but the governments that hail and welcome the pope with hospitality do more damage than the pope’s remarks,” Younis al-Astal said. More from the Hamas department of strange noises…>>

Qatar-based Islamic scholar Dr Sheikh Yousuf al-Qaradawi has expressed his strong dissent to the Pope’s current visit to Jordan.Â

Gulf Times
Delivering his Friday sermon, Sheikh Qaradawi said: “He (the Pope) had after being ordained to the highest office of the Catholic church made a derogatory remark about Islam and our Prophet in a speech in Germany. He described Islam as a religion that stands for violence and said that the Prophet Muhammad did not convey anything new to humanity.

“He made this observation rather gratuitously and refused to withdraw his statement when we, on behalf of the International Islamic Council of Ulema, demanded an apology and withdrawal of the statement. The council has since then decided to boycott the Pope and snap relations with the Vatican until he responds to our demand or takes suitable action to set right this offence.”
Qaradawi said he fully supported the Islamists of Jordan who had strongly protested against the Pope’s visit.Â
Qaradawi also referred to the recent visit to Doha of a journalist from the Danish daily which published slanderous cartoons on the Prophet of Islam and said that this journalist should not have been invited.Â
“When the cartoons were published there was a furore all over the Islamic World. It was an act of insult to half a billion Muslims. The daily had refused to apologise. The prime minister of Denmark had also refused to apologise. But it is said of us Muslims that we suffer from amnesia.”